Boy Meets Boy
by Kaesteranya
Summary: My set of drabbles or flash fiction pieces for Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsuyanoshi. A few will be porny, but most of it will swing between angst and teeth-rotting fluff.
1. A flower called heartsease

**A flower called heartsease.**

_This fic takes place sometime in the future. The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for October 20, 2007._

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The piano was the first thing he heard the moment he went inside the mansion: the tone was soft, sweet and low, new and pleasantly unfamiliar. Sawada Tsuyanoshi followed the sound, feeling the exhaustion of his day out being the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family melt a little with every step he made, as each one brought him closer to his new destination – a better, nicer place than all of the other ones he had been wandering through since breakfast.

On his first official day as the Tenth, Tsuna's head butler had asked him about the renovations and additions that he might have wished to make to the mansion. It was apparently the family's tradition to allow the newly inducted boss to change the mansion as he wished, provided that he kept a few key areas and rooms intact. Oddly, the only thing Tsuna had asked about was a particular room in a particular wing that had not been used since the time of the Fifth. He had wanted the whole area refurbished, and the finest piano in the country moved into the room in question.

Gokudera was in that room at the moment, playing through the song that Tsuna had heard back at the front door of the mansion: the silver-haired mafioso was totally absorbed in his music and Tsuna was content with playing the role of secret observer from the corridor, of having the privilege of seeing Gokudera not as the Storm Guardian and Right Hand of the Tenth, but simply as himself for just a few precious minutes, a young man with a piano and his favorite song of the day.

Gokudera dropped the last note almost too quickly for Tsuna's tastes. The young man did not call attention upon himself immediately, choosing, instead, to commit the image of his Storm Guardian – his lover and dearest friend – to memory: the relaxed curve of his back, the broad shoulders, the glint of each of the rings on his fingers, the sunlight in his hair, his peacefully closed eyes, the slight, upward and content curve of his lips. Tsuna very suddenly wanted to take that face between his hands and kiss that mouth, slowly, sweetly.

"What song was that?"

"Ah! Tenth!" Gokudera scrambled up, all flushed cheeks and total embarrassment. "H-how long have you been standing there?"

"It doesn't matter." Tsuna chuckled, dismissing the whole situation with a careless wave of his hand. He looked up then, smiling a little shyly at the other man. It always took a bit of effort for him to ask the next question, even though they had practically grown up joined to the hip, knowing every inch of each other's skin like they knew the backs of their own hands. "Do you… do you think you can teach that piece to me?"

"Of course."

And there it was, the complete and total lack of hesitation and pure warmth that he had once thought of himself unworthy of receiving. It was Tsuna's door to blush as he smiled again, lowered his eyes, and stepped through the door.


	2. I never knew you were this beautiful

**Boameria tricuspis, I always knew you'd be this beautiful!**

_Written for the prompt "hair cut", and because in some universes, these two deserve a happy ending. The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for July 25, 2008._

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Sawada Tsuyanoshi wakes up to sunlight on his face and the sight of a gloriously naked Gokudera Hayato leaving their bed and stepping into the shower. The Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family allows himself to stare at those curves and angles and silver hair and broad, broad shoulders before they vanish from sight. He hears the water come on, and briefly contemplates on joining the other man in a stall that's just the right size for two people. He decides against it, and eventually remembers why it would not be in his best interests to use up what little time they've got together on a good morning fuck. The brunette yawns, rolls out of bed with a liberal stretch, and makes his way to his wardrobe, navigating his way through the islands that his clothes and his Right Hand Man's clothes have made on the floor of his bedroom. The wood panels are smooth and gloriously cool against the soles of his feet.

"Come and sit down," he says to Gokudera later, after the other man has stepped out, toweling his hair, all slick chest and ripped jeans.

"…Tenth?"

"You said you needed a haircut, right?"

"But—"

"But what?"

He beams, and that is all it takes for Gokudera to return his smile, albeit tentatively, and follow his boss' word to the letter. That he can wield this power over the man boggles him at times, filling him alternatively with the quiet sort of joy of one who is continuously surprised at finding himself well-loved or with this sniggling bit of guilt of one who considers himself unworthy of undying loyalty and devotion. Gokudera Hayato has walked with him for ten whole years and then some, hanging on his heels, on his every word, stretching himself out beyond what his capabilities in the name of the Tenth. It has taken Tsuna all of those years to hold the other man close, and convince him that the best way he could show his love was to make sure he lived to come back to him – come back to their bed – in one piece, healthy and whole and smiling in that way that no other person has ever smiled for him.

"Your hair has really grown out."

"I… I haven't really had the time to cut it myself."

"That's all right. It gives me an excuse to do it for you."

It also allows Tsuna to stand just behind the other man, feel him perfectly still just centimeters away from him, close enough to give him comfort but distant enough to allow him to study every inch of his skin. Gokudera has, across many battlefields and in quiet dark places, mapped out the last ten years of their story through marks of Tsuna's lips (or teeth) on his skin and the scars he has received. Tsuna studies these as he takes a pair of scissors to the other man's hair. It is still wet from Gokudera's shower, and soft beneath his fingertips. Apparently, he realizes a moment later, when Gokudera reaches up to touch the ends of his own hair from over his shoulder, that his Right Hand Man must have been thinking about the same thing that he was. They have been doing that often enough, melding their thoughts together nearly as often as the way they acquaint themselves with each other's lips.

"Tenth," Gokudera whispers in his ear, a few heartbeats later, "forget about the haircut for a bit."

And this time, it is Tsuna who does as he told.


	3. Caduceus

**Caduceus.**

_A caduceus is "the staff carried by Mercury as messenger of the gods", or "a representation of this staff used as an emblem of the medical profession and as the insignia of the U.S. Army Medical Corps", probably recognizable to most of us as the emblem of the Red Cross._

_This was written for the word prompt "bells" over at the KHR Fic Meme, and the title is taken from the 31 Days theme for November 28, 2007. Special thanks to Nikki for doing the REAL archiving for all of us~_

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It was the best thing to see after a long day involving pushing pens across his mahogany desk and smiling at dour-faced mafioso until his cheeks felt like they were going to fall off: Gokudera Hayato stretched across his bed, wearing nothing but ribbons that were the exact same green as his eyes, his rings (one on each trembling finger), and countless golden bells that shook and shivered every time he squirmed. His dearest (and only) right hand man was flat on his belly with his ass up in the air, gasping into the ball gag in his mouth, desperately trying to rub himself off on Tsuna's finest bedsheets. The vibrator stuffed between his buttcheeks also looked like it was the same shade of green as the ribbons wrapped about his body.

Yamamoto Takeshi had not been kidding when he had told Tsuna that the wait would be worth it. Tsuna made a mental note to call Hibari and, after thanking him profusely, demand to know what the Cloud Guardian (and by extension, Dino Cavallone) had been teaching the swordsman in his spare time.

Gokudera was staring up at him through teary eyes. Tsuna chuckled and flopped down on the bed, to stroke the nape of the other man's neck. The little bells jingled, moving to the tune of a hundred different songs all pointing in the same direction.

"At least I know for certain that you'll really do anything for me," the Tenth cheerily remarked, as he moved his other hand between Gokudera's legs.


	4. The many colors of a bruise

**The many colors of a bruise**

_Set sometime in the future – the future of the TYL Arc, anyway. The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 8, 2008._

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Tsuyanoshi Sawada, the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family, woke up when they were a couple of miles too far away from home. It took him a moment to realize that he was not walking on his own two feet, that someone was carrying him away from the ruins and bodies of his enemies.

"Ah—"

"Don't move so much, Tenth. You might hurt yourself."

Gokudera Hayato paused to adjust his hold on Tsuna before he continued walking through the forest. The silver-haired mafioso seemed perfectly content with putting one foot in front of the other, keeping his eyes on the path in front of him and his grip underneath his boss' legs firm, as though the latter weighed nothing at all to him. From where he was, Tsuna could make out only half of Gokudera's profile, in the cut up light of the moon filtered through the canopy of the trees around them.

"Um. I think I can walk, Gokudera-kun. Really, I'm fine…"

He trailed off because Gokudera kept his silence and kept on walking, as though he had not talked at all. Tsuna tightened his grip around his right hand man's neck and almost regretted saying anything at all. He did not expect Gokudera, of all people, to ignore him, but given the way things had been as of late, perhaps he should not have been too surprised. They were, after all, fleeing from a building full of people that Tsuna had ripped apart, with his own two hands.

"You're… you're not hurt anywhere, are you?" Silence again. Tsuna steeled himself and pressed on. "Because if you got injured, Gokudera-kun, then I don't think you should be carrying me—"

"Please be quiet, Tenth, and let me do my job."

Gokudera had spoken to him in a soft, dangerously quiet tone that Tsuna had never heard the other man use before. There was power in it, the sort that drove Gokudera to do all of the things he did as Tsuna's Right Hand Man, be it destroy things or obliterate people with a unshakeable resolve and a few sticks of dynamite. Tsuna resisted the urge to answer him, and shifted a bit, trying not to lean on Gokudera as much as possible.

The rest of the trip went by in a strange blur; Tsuna remembered blinking in and out, finding himself still in the forest and still slumped against Gokudera in one moment and then being carted off in Ryohei's arms in the next, with the frantic voices of his subordinates all around him. By the time the world decided to stop spinning, Tsuna found himself back in his own bed, patched up properly and staring up at the ceiling. The first thing he noticed the moment he turned his gaze back down to Earth was Gokudera slumped over his bedside with his head pillowed in his arms, fast asleep. He was still wearing the now torn, bloody and dirtied clothes that he had worn for their mission.

"He wanted to apologize to you."

Yamamoto was curled up in a seat pulled up to the other side of the bed; the swordsman set the book he had been reading aside and smiled at Tsuna, reaching out to pat his boss' hand. The Shigure Kintoki was propped up against his seat, with its hilt easily within reach.

"Apologize… for what?"

"He said something about losing his cool. I can't imagine him ever getting angry at you though," his Rain Guardian remarked, as he stood up. "Anyway, I'll go and call a doctor in here. There are people stationed outside, so shout if you need anything and I'm not back yet, okay?"

Tsuna only smiled at Yamamoto in response; he dropped it, however, the moment his old friend was gone. The young mafia boss turned back to Gokudera's sleeping form, recalling the details of the mission, thinking back to all the fights and trials that had brought them to the mess they were in at the moment, with him flat on his back and Gokudera quite possibly blaming himself for letting his leader go off and get hurt again.

_But if I don't bleed, I'm never going to learn_.

Gokudera shifted underneath Tsuna's fingertips, eyebrows knitting, lips mouthing his boss' name. Tsuna stroked his hair, both to comfort the sleeping young man beneath his touch and himself.

_He's always going to be there to catch me._

It was not an entirely comforting thought; it carried with it a responsibility that Tsuna had attempted to run away from throughout his years in middle school, one regarding families and fighting together and dying for each other. He was older now, though, and he had not gone through the past nine years without learning how to protect himself better, to make sure that Gokudera would never have any reason to feel like he had failed somehow.

Gokudera had relaxed underneath Tsuna's fingertips, and thinking about the issues were starting to take their toll on him; the young boss shut his eyes, ready to give himself over to his exhaustion now that they were in a safe, well-lighted place. He recalled, just before he drifted off again, the chill of the forest and Gokudera's back – warm and wide and solid – against his bruised cheek.


	5. All this leads to one outcome

**All this leads to one outcome.**

_Written to the prompt "watching you watch him"._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for July 2, 2008._

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He tells himself that he isn't jealous. He can't be, because Dino Cavallone is a vain and soft and slightly effeminate idiot who is incredibly clumsy and is perfectly helpless with his men. Dino is NOT better than him, definitely not.

Still, it angers Gokudera whenever he finds himself at Tsuna's side during Vongola-Cavallone negotiations, hands clenched into fists on his lap, listening to Dino and Tsuna talk, watching Dino flirt only too obviously with his "beloved younger brother" and noting the way Tsuna fends him off with laughter and banter. At least his boss is getting better at replying and not getting flustered. Gokudera used to want to kill something every time Dino succeeded in making Tsuna blush.

What Gokudera doesn't know is that Tsuna finds his jealousy and possessiveness so endearing, and it's part of the reason why Tsuna indulges Dino in as much as he can. That, and the sex they always have after a meeting is fantastic.


	6. A waking dream

**A waking dream.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for June 17, 2006._

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Their morning routine involves him waking up to sheets that smell of sunlight, nicotine and last night's activities, with his cheek against a pillow that's still got the dent of another's head beside him. He smiles a little, knowing on one hand that he must look like a complete idiot but accepting the fact that really, he is. Always has been. Always will be. Especially now, when there's a pleasant sort of buzz in his head and everything feels – is – wonderful: the bed, the room, the morning.

It's tempting, so very tempting, to just lie there, linger, roll around a little and bask in the moment, but he pushes himself up and out, hooks one of the bed sheets with his hand and pulls it around himself as he makes his way across the room; the floorboards are warm against the bare soles of his feet. He remembers an old tale, a bedtime story, of a village and a piper and music stealing children up and away, into somewhere. He is not a child anymore, hasn't been for quite some time now, but in this very minute he feels like one, drunk on the music floating towards him through the door, down the hallway. The sound of a single piano, playing out a song he doesn't recognize. (But all piano music for him is good and beautiful.)

He tries not to hurry, but his own urgency scares him at times.

So there he is: Gokudera Hayato, haloed in light, shirtless, jeans hanging just so from his waist, arms out, fingers and feet plucking out a melody from newly shined brass pedals and unstained ivory keys. It would be so easy to spend one moment just short of forever tracing the line that his spine makes from the nape of his neck down to the middle of his back and beyond, or the exact breadth of his shoulders, or the play of brilliance and shadows in the gray of his hair. It's equally easy to watch those fingers and think of this and that and so much more.

He tiptoes now, putting his stealth lessons with Reborn to good use as he sneaks up behind the other, reaches out, wraps his hands over Gokudera's eyes, leans in close to hear that small, surprised gasp.

"Good morning, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna whispers, into the curve of that ear, against those earrings he's come to love. Gokudera smiles, pulls his hands away and kisses him, and smiles again. Gokudera, his eyes are green.

"Good morning, Tenth."

Seven minutes and a good amount of kissing later, Tsuna realizes, yet again, that it's a beautiful, beautiful day.


	7. Awkward as a wound on my bones

**Awkward as a wound on my bones.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for March 9, 2009._

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Gokudera may not care about a lot of things, but he has spent the last ten years attuning himself so completely to Tsuna: he knows all that there is to know about Tsuna, can read him like the books in his room, can predict him the way he knows the answer to nearly every calculation under the laws of every field of natural science.

It is for this reason that he knows that Tsuna is angry at him. It's in the set of Tsuna's shoulders as the shorter man walks ahead of him. It's in the pace they're moving; Tsuna normally doesn't walk this fast, most especially when someone else is injured (read: Gokudera). It's in the fact that no matter what he says, Tsuna is carrying on like he didn't speak at all.

The silence is nearly unbearable by the time they enter Tsuna's office, and Gokudera hangs back, fidgeting nervously for the first time in years, as he watches Tsuna move towards his desk, as he watches Tsuna stop, back still turned to him, bow his head, and say nothing at all.

"Tenth—"

"Why don't you ever listen to me?"

The words make him flinch, even if there's no accusation in it, only a question. Gokudera cannot bring himself to answer; he does not know how to answer. Tsuna turns sharply, crosses the room again, reaches out and grasps at the inner edges of Gokudera's coat.

"Why can't you just take care of yourself?"

And whatever he might have said is lost, all of a sudden, the moment Gokudera looks down and sees the look in Tsuna's eyes. Eyes of that color aren't supposed to look that dark, that clouded, that worried. The Storm Guardian hesitates for but a moment before he reaches forward and pulls his leader in for a tight embrace.

"Sorry. I won't ever do it again."

Tsuna doesn't speak; he only buries his head in Gokudera's shoulder, wraps his arms about the other's waist tight. They don't move for the rest of the evening.


	8. Bang, bang, blame

**Bang, bang, blame.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 19, 2008._

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Tsuna always wakes up before Gokudera does after a long, drawn-out session of fucking – he does this not just because he wants to make sure he won't wake up to Gokudera going out on a leg yet again to make him comfortable, but also because moments like these are the only times he'll ever get to close enough to study Gokudera's scars. He pulls the blankets back then, takes in Gokudera's face, then moves his gaze down. He counts the exit wounds of bullets, the silver slits of cuts from sharp edges, the discolored patches of skin left behind by first through third-degree burning, the remnants of stitches from gashes that refused to close without the aid of a needle and string.

It's not the best thing to do first thing in the morning, especially after a night spend making love and hiding in Gokudera's arms. Tsuna, however, wants to make sure to constantly remind himself that even Gokudera Hayato, the most steadfast and brightest and best of his Guardians, is expendable.

Tsuna wants to remind himself that someone like him cannot afford to be helpless, that a leader like him must protect his subordinates in as much as they try to be his shield.


	9. But must I confess how I liked him?

**But must I confess how I liked him?**

_Please to be excusing the fail!Italian._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for November 15, 2008._

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Since he can never say the words (the world of the mafia game is not friendly to the sort of love he has), Gokudera Hayato's confession comes in the form of a public declaration of his loyalty before the whole congregation. It was the longest walk of his life, crossing the dining hall to where the newly inducted Vongola Decimo sat, haloed by the lights of the room, bolstered by the praise and support of the underworld.

There is a trace of surprise in those eyes as he bends to one knee and lifts that hand up, pressing the ring to his lips for a few more seconds than necessary, in order to better meet that gaze. He wonders why his boss looks like that – how could he have expected anything less of his Guardian, his personal storm? All that he does, he does for him. He would stop his own breathing at his word.

He lets Tsuna know this, as he finally lifts himself to his feet, bends forward again, to kiss both cheeks, steps away with a smile.

"_Solo per te, Decimo."_

_Fino alla morte non ce separi._

It used to hurt Gokudera, the fact that Tsuna will never really know. Smiling, however, can be the greatest sort of self-defense. He learned that from his leader.


	10. Did I dream this belief, or did I?

**Did I dream this belief, or did I believe this dream?**

_Written for the prompt: "it's like watching a trainwreck, you can't look away". This one takes place in the future, sometime before the Tenth kicks the bucket._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for May 17, 2008._

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It's a regular sight: Gokudera Hayato hunched over his desk, eyes squinting against the dim light flooding over from the lamp at the corner, far too absorbed in what he is doing to bother with getting up and turning on the rest of the lights. He can trace the line of Gokudera's back and note all the unnatural ways that his Storm Guardian bends it as he works, attempting to glare/shake/tinker out answers from the scarred boxes and tiny little rings scattered before him. He knows, for a fact, that Gokudera is not going to sleep tonight, and has not slept for the past week – the Millefiore have been on the move as of late, and it's a real struggle for the Vongola Family to keep things up.

He allows himself, however, one moment – just one moment – to _not _be the Vongola Decimo and be Sawada Tsunayoshi. One moment to wish that he could sweep the rings and boxes off Gokudera's desk. One moment to think about how good and nice it'd be to wrap his arms around Gokudera and pull and keep pulling until he draws his right hand man away and into bed, to rest and to recover.

There is, after all, only so much time left.

"…Jyuudaime?"

The title is a reminder, a return to reality. Tsuna smiles in a way that he knows puts Gokudera at ease. He is lying, yes, but his years as head of the family have shown him that it isn't always good to be completely transparent.

"Keep up the good work, Gokudera-kun."

It takes a little less effort to turn around and walk away this time, compared to the last. Perhaps it really is getting easier for him to pretend that he wasn't running on borrowed time and that he and Gokudera Hayato were going to make it through this whole ordeal together, happy and whole.


	11. Confess and be hanged

**Confess and be hanged.**

_This is the companion fic to "To fabricate unknown-ness."_

_The title to this is taken from the 31 Days theme for February 11, 2008._

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He knows that he isn't supposed to have these sorts of thoughts, but whenever Gokudera comes forward to greet his boss with two kisses, one for each cheek, he's marveling at how soft they feel against his lips, and how Tsuna always smells so wonderful: clean and smooth and pure. They aren't the sort of things that a man is supposed to notice about another man, but he cannot help himself. As such, these past ten years have been torture.

He is, of course, completely unaware of why he feels this way about Tsuna. He did not know that loyalty for another could run so deep, and be that intimate. He would think on it more, but his role as the Storm Guardian keeps him very, very busy.

(Perhaps that is a good thing.)


	12. You are everything I

**You are everything I—**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for March 6, 2008._

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A regular day for Gokudera Hayato means waking up at 4 AM in order to go downstairs and harass the cooks about the menu for the day – he paces about, biting the heads off anyone who appears to be slacking (with the definition of slacking being holding still and not doing anything for about three seconds) and ragging on the head chef about the Tenth's diet. Gokudera follows the maid who brings the tray up to the boss' room at around 9 AM, stays right on her heels, all pins and needles and nervous energy as she knocks and waits for a quiet voice to welcome her inside. He follows, puts a big smile on his face, and greets his boss good morning. He reports on any significant events that took place while the Tenth was asleep, and tries not to be too obvious about the way he stares at Sawada Tsunayoshi – all soft-eyed and disheveled and irresistibly cute from sleeping in – whenever the other man is busy looking at something else.

They are together for the rest of the day (Mukuro would call it 'joined to the gonads', and Gokudera would hit him for it except he always returns control to Chrome in the nick of time and Gokudera's leery about hitting girls). Gokudera always makes it a point to stay just a few paces behind Tsuna's right shoulder, where he feels that a boss' right hand man ought to be… he tries his best to stay quiet and serious, but Tsuna occasionally draws him out with some kind words and brilliant smiles.

If there is a mission, they move in together, with Gokudera supporting every punch Tsuna throws. If there isn't a mission, they work at two different desks in the same office, face-to-face with nothing but papers and coffee mugs between them. Gokudera makes it a point to never look away from his work; Tsuna's voice as he moves things in the mafia game over the phone or with the assistants that bustle in and out of the room is the only kind of white noise he enjoys.

He always plays the piano for the Tenth after dinner, in a private music room that is locked to all except for the two of them because they are the only ones who have keys. He plays whatever beautiful song comes to mind, because Tsuna never imposes his own requests upon Gokudera no matter how many times Gokudera insists that it's all right. He plays until he feels Tsuna's head nod down unto his shoulder – his music, Tsuna has told him, is the only thing that can put him to sleep these days.

Gokudera shifts carefully, in order to take his boss into his arms and carry him to his room; he makes it a point to change Tsuna's clothes, trying hard not to blush at the sight of the other man naked and completely at his disposal. Once that ordeal is done, he spends the next few hours just at Tsuna's side, watching him sleep, remembering, as he always does, the reason why he keeps fighting, keeps living, keeps loving.


	13. Foreshortened view of everything

**Foreshortened view of everything.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for January 4, 2008._

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One fine afternoon, a few years after middle school and right on the brink of their high school graduation. Gokudera Hayato on one end of the room, carrying himself like the punk he's always been. On the other end, a guidance counselor.

"So what are your plans for the future, Gokudera-kun?"

"I WISH TO BE WITH THE TENTH FOREVER!"

Blink.

"…Who's the Tenth?"


	14. Forever

**Forever.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for October 3, 2008._

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Tsuna likes to brush the hair away from Gokudera's face and kiss/bite/lick his ears because it allows him to look upon the earrings and clasps that the other man wears. He presses his lips to each of the ones sitting on a piercing he made, and recalls, with some fondness, how he did each one of them with his own hands. He used to be so afraid of hurting Gokudera back when they were boys, and he had told him so much in high school, the night Gokudera had handed him the piercing gun and told him, quite solemnly, that he wanted to have the honor of being marked by the person he intended to follow into Hell and back as many times as Tsuna wanted.

His hands used to shake as he'd press the gun to Gokudera's ear, clasping delicate skin between the nail and the trigger. He used to collapse in a nervous heap against Gokudera's body and try not to cry as the latter cooed soft reassurances and stroked his back. Nowadays, however, marking Gokudera has become second nature to him. If he does not do it with metal and piercings, he does it with tongue and mouth and teeth.


	15. The gravitational constant

**The gravitational constant**

_Written for the prompt "you can't fight gravity"._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for February 20, 2009._

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Gokudera doesn't really know how it started for him – he was completely unimpressed the first time he saw Sawada Tsunayoshi, his future boss around Namimori Middle School, and turned off by the fact that he was small and scrawny and failed in all his classes and stammered way too much. He had his doubts, even after he saw Tsuna in action – the power of Dying Will was something to contend with, surely, but without a catalyst, there was no way to toggle the power.

It might have been there, then, in all the little things: the honesty in those eyes, the quiet purity of his intentions, the way he was perfectly all right with having a broken kid like Gokudera around him, the way he insisted on fighting for the ones he cared about even if he was scared, even if he thought himself weak and helpless. The admiration of all of that must have bled into everything else, because it wasn't long before Gokudera was thinking about what it might be like to kiss Tsuna, or what sort of light he'd see in Tsuna's eyes if he told the other boy how much he loved him.

Gokudera isn't supposed to love anyone anymore, given his amazing track record with people and caring and abandonment, but even a boy with his sort of willpower can't keep himself from falling.


	16. I'll undo what heredity has done to you

**I'll undo what heredity's done to you.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for March 7, 2009._

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Gokudera's affection, Tsuna has come to realize over the years, is a defensive sort of affection: he never gives any to anyone, and always acts in response to something, to some sort of trigger. The way he treats Tsuna is the exception to the rule, but there's still this guardedness, this nervous sort of energy that could have only been brought about by years upon years of dealing with rejection and deceit. Tsuna, having come from a very loving family, feels almost sorry for Gokudera every time he sees the way the other boy views other people: Yamamoto and Yamamoto's dad and their easygoing exchanges; Ryohei and Kyoko and the way Kyoko fusses over Ryohei; Bianchi.

He knows there's something broken in Gokudera that he really can't fix all on his own. He wants Gokudera to tell him more about his life, to stop dodging the question whenever it comes up and stop saying all sorts of things that really lead to one thing (read: distracting the Tenth from stories of his unworthy existence). Tsuna, however, is a lot more stubborn than people think he is when it comes to the things that matter to him, and it is for this reason that he keeps holding the boy, hugging the boy, and making Gokudera an inexplicable part of his life.


	17. In love on Fridays

**In love on Fridays.**

_Inspired by Chapter 222 and 223 of the manga. The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for December 9, 2007._

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"TENTH! Are you all right? Let me help you up!"

After starting up, speeding off and crashing right into a wall for the umpteenth time, Tsuna was about ready to give up on the whole motorbike business. Now he finds himself flat on his back, blinking dazedly up at the concerned face and outstretched hand of Gokudera Hayato.

"A-ah… thanks."

His face feels hot, hotter than the way Gokudera's palm feels against his own palm, but he passes it off as the result of getting smacked against the wall at roughly the same speed that flies get splattered across the windshields of fast-moving cars too times too many. Nevertheless, he keeps his gaze low as Gokudera fusses over him and later moves on to fuss over the bike.

"Don't worry, Tenth! You'll get the hang of it soon!"

"I-I really don't know, Gokudera-kun… this k-kind of looks hopeless."

"Um! I can teach you!"

Gokudera looks instantly embarrassed at his own words, but Tsuna barely notices.

"…You will?"

"Only if you'll allow me too, Tenth! It'll be my honor!"

And Tsuna tells himself that he's saying yes because Reborn is going to kill him if he doesn't learn how to bike like a biker god in twenty-four hours, and NOT because he gets hot and pleasantly bothered at the thought of Gokudera's arms on his arms and voice on his ear as he tells him how to hit the brakes right and keep his balance on a straightaway.

When he does get hot and pleasantly bothered as they spent the rest of the night training with the bikes, Tsuna tells himself that it's because the air conditioner's busted and it's way too warm in the training room.


	18. You weave the magic of your love

**You weave the magic of your love around me.**

_This one was written for the prompt "where have you been all my life?". The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 11, 2007._

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For Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsunayoshi, there are many rituals attached to the act of making love. They have agreed, after ten years of being together, that going through the motions is half the fun.

The kissing starts first, of course, with hushed breaths and eager fingers skimming over clothes, dancing through hair and over skin. It's a bit of a game for them, seeing how quiet they can be, seeing who will end up whispering some sweet missive in Italian, in Japanese – the winner gets to undress the other first, with deliberate slowness. These days, Gokudera is always the one who loses, partially out of indulgence, mostly out of the fact that Tsuna is not the same person he was years ago, in middle school. He is truly a leader now, and every upstanding right hand man knows his place.

Tsuna takes his time, of course, bereft of the shyness that used to dominate his personality – he has no need to be shy, not while he is with the person he loves the most in all the world. He keeps Gokudera between the piano and his own body, buries his hands under his Storm Guardian's coat, pushes it off the taller man's shoulders. He slips his fingers under the suspenders next before sliding them off next, followed by the holsters bearing Gokudera's guns and sticks of dynamite. The buttons follow, while they're kissing again, sharing breath: he has grown to love the way nicotine tastes on his lips, strange and smoky and bitter as it is. He does not need to smoke, not while he can have what he wants of Gokudera after work, every night.

At this point, after the pants have dropped to the floor, removing the other man's underwear completely would be best, but Tsuna is momentarily distracted by the way Gokudera looks now that he has pried the man ever so gently out of his shell: braced against the piano, breathing in and breathing out, flushed and hot with his shirt pushed away to reveal the full expanse of his chest. There is a tell-tale bulge between his legs, a shape only too well-defined against his briefs. Tsuna kneels down, smiles up at Gokudera once, then puts his mouth over the man's cock, through the cloth. He feels Gokudera moan more than he hears it, and it might be because Gokudera's hands went down hard on the piano keys, hitting whole groups of discordant notes all at once.

In the morning after, Gokudera wakes up from where they had settled beneath the piano and on the Persian carpet that Kyoko had bought for the mansion last Christmas, wrapped up in Tsuna's coat. The Storm Guardian eases himself out from underneath the piano, looks up to see Tsuna already dressing. He comes around, still gloriously naked, and slips his arms out from underneath his boss' arms, to fix the shorter man's cufflinks for him. Tsuna turns to smile at him, just once, then kisses Gokudera's ring finger before slipping the Ring of Storm back on it. He asks, after a moment of blessed silence of simply being there with his leader and lover, if the Tenth would like to hear a song.


	19. We're drowned in merriment

**We're drowned in merriment.**

_Written for the prompt "I have you on speed dial"._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 17, 2007._

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When he heard Tsuna shriek during his very first night in Italy as the Vongola Decimo, Gokudera found himself thinking pretty much every possible bad thing under the sun short of a nuclear bomb dropping over their heads, because if there _had_ been someone crazy enough to lob such a thing at them, he probably wouldn't have been able to wake up alive to think about it. Whatever it is, it has Gokudera up and running over to Tsuna's room in nothing but his boxers with a stick of dynamite between each of his fingers.

"TENTHWHATSTHEMATTERAREYOUHURTWHONEEDSTODIENOW?"

And he comes across what he wasn't actually expecting at all, but becomes very grateful for witnessing in the future: Tsuna, wibbling at him, standing on his office desk, whiter than his bedsheets. There is a puppy on the floor, and it's the cutest looking thing in the world, and apparently, Tsuna is deathly afraid of it.

It takes every ounce of Gokudera's willpower to not collapse in a heap of helpless laughter. Thankfully, willpower, when it comes to Tsuna, is something that Gokudera has in great abundance.


	20. Phases

**Phases.**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for October 26, 2008._

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Sawada Tsunayoshi realizes that every time they're making out, Gokudera Hayato makes it a habit to end each long and intense kiss with a tinier one, something closer to the feel of a butterfly's wings brushing over his lips than any real contact. It's as if Gokudera is trying to mark Tsuna – his leader, his most precious Tenth – as his own, and no one else's.

Gokudera Hayato realizes that when they're making love, Sawada Tsunayoshi pulls him down as close as he can, right until their foreheads touch and they're breathing in tandem, lips gasping against the small space and thin, hot air between them. It's as if Tsuna wants them to melt together, to have no distance between them, to bring Gokudera down and over him like a shield against the world.

Both of them know that they are not scared of what's to come, of the things that need to be done and the names that need to be struck out, of the bodies in the river and the little black envelopes. They are scared of nothing but losing each other.


	21. The sea was empty

**The sea was empty.**

_Consider this a little fictional introspection on that scene in the TYL arc, where they're bunked together and Tsuna is crying._

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for November 30, 2007._

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At the age of fifteen, Gokudera Hayato learns the true meaning of helplessness.

He had thought that it involved sitting alone at a piano in a big, cold room, plunking out notes in the empty air, wondering when she was going to show up, knowing, somehow, that she won't.

He had thought that it involved moving through a corridor of murmurs like a shadow, feeling their eyes, hearing their words.

He had thought it might be running through the ruins of their school building, listening to a mad prince laugh at his pain, losing blood with every step, thinking _just a little more just a little longer._

He realizes, now, though, that it isn't any of that.

It's staying curled up on your side on the top bunk of a bed that isn't yours, counting every single tear, every single sob, from the boy at the bottom, even while he tries to stay quiet and stifle it.


	22. To fabricate unknownness

**To fabricate unknown-ness.**

_This is the companion fic to "Confess and be hanged."_

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for March 11, 2006._

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He knows that he isn't supposed to have these sorts of thoughts, but whenever Gokudera sends away another girl and she's in tears over his rejection, Tsuna feels something very much akin to relief. Relief for what, he isn't sure: he knows only that this way, he gets to keep Gokudera for himself for just a little longer than he ought to.

He is, of course, completely unaware of why Gokudera isn't interested, but it doesn't matter. He values their friendship, and he has a feeling that a girlfriend is just going to get in the way of that.

(Sawada Tsunayoshi needs, as he does with a lot of things, a clue.)


	23. White

**White.**

_Written for the prompt "everyone loses in the end" – the title is taken from the 31 Days theme for July 30, 2008._ _Major spoilers for the TYL arc in this one, folks._

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That day, the last image Gokudera ever had of Tsuna alive is the image of his smile just before he turned his back, walking down to the car that was going to bring him to what was supposed to be their last negotiation with the Millefiore. He remembers thinking about how handsome his leader looked against the scintillating green of the trees, against the blue sky and the halo of sunlight – how handsome, how beautiful, how totally distant from him. He should have known that there was more to that smile and more to the look Tsuna had in his eyes right before he left.

The next time he saw his boss, the latter was drowning in a pool of blood of his own blood, but "drowning" might not be the proper word given the fact that he was already long dead by the time Gokudera came around. Tsuna was wearing the very smile he had used at their departure, distorted only by a streak of red trickling from his lips. When they pried his gloved hands open, they found nothing but a small silver fragment of what used to be a ring at the center of his palm – the half of the Ring of Storm, the only thing he had preserved from the Vongola rings he had destroyed months ago.

It takes Gokudera one full week to bring himself to leave his room, and just a few hours to decide that he had to bring the Millefiore down with his own two hands. The piece, he is wearing it around his neck the day he opens Sawada Tsunayoshi's coffin and finds the younger version of his boss among the flowers.


	24. Why not?

**Why not?**

_The title for this one is taken from the 31 Days theme for Noveber 17, 2007._

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"…Now I'm not exactly sure how to reverse it," Shamal says as he cleans an ear out with one finger and looks a little green in the cheeks, "so we'll just have to wait it out until tomorrow and see what happens."

Gokudera hears those words, and all sorts of homicidal scenarios flood his mind, in the hundred possible ways that he could end Lambo Bovino's existence once and for all. It's the stupid cow's fault that his boss has been grievously hurt! He is right in the middle of wondering how joyous it would feel to drop the brat into a vat of hot acid when a whimper at his side catches his attention, and Gokudera forgets all about murder.

"Tenth, are you sure you're okay?"

"Y-yeah…"

Tsuna fidgets uncomfortably from where she is seated beside Gokudera, head down, eyes lowered and hands frantically fighting to keep the skirt down over her legs – she wouldn't have ever thought that girls' clothes were that airy. Shamal lets out a low whistle that makes Gokudera growl and Tsuna want to cry. The doctor is smirking at them both as he stands up and claps Gokudera's shoulder.

"Be a man, my fair student."

"SHUT UP."

But Shamal is already gone, leaving a very distraught Tsuna all alone with Gokudera in the clinic. Gokudera runs a hand through his hair and sneaks a glance at the once-boy-now-girl beside him.

"Um… I guess we're staying here, huh."

"I will. You should really go to class though."

Tsuna finally looks up, and Gokudera feels like he's been hit by a fist to the gut the moment he sees those eyes.

…_Dios mio_, she's cute.

"Gokudera-kun?"

Thinkhonorablethoughtsthinkhonorablethoughts—

"Um. This must really bother you, huh."

So much for that.

"W-w-what do you mean?"

"Well, um… we just got together and… w-we've barely d-done anything and n-now…"

Tsuna bites her lip, looking down again; her cheeks flush a very delicate and cute shade of pink. Gokudera suddenly discovers how hot it is in the clinic.

"I'll still want you!"

"Eh?"

"You're the only one I want, Tenth, girl or boy!"

Okay, so it comes out a little stupid now that he's said it, so Gokudera reaches out to clasp Tsuna's hands (they're so small and soft) and gaze, with utmost sincerity, into his boss' eyes. Tsuna only blushes harder. It's definitely hot in here.

"I'm very happy to hear that, Gokudera-kun."

That afternoon, Gokudera realizes that breasts aren't so bad after all.

The next day, Shamal comes into the clinic to find them tangled together and Tsuna still very female. He makes a quip about protection and pregnancy that sends him flying out the door in a charred heap.


	25. Effect of impact on stationary objects

**The effect of impact on stationary objects****.**

_The title is taken from Prompt #5 on the 52 Flavors community._

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After some coaching from Yamamoto and more than a fair amount of moral support from Haru (who appeared to be rather unusually invested in the whole situation), Tsuna eventually approached Gokudera, his boyfriend of nearly half a decade, and said that now that he really WAS the head of the Vongola Family, he wished to celebrate the occasion with his most precious person. In bed. Tonight.

Gokudera promptly started spluttering, and did not stop until Tsuna took his Right Hand's face between both his hands, yanked the still flailing young man down to his height (because Gokudera's Italian blood had just made him _shoot up like a tree _all of a sudden) and stared until Gokudera froze up and turned red right down to his neck and the tips of his ears.

"I am asking you to deflower me, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna enunciated, in perfect Italian, because he remembers vaguely that someone told him that such a phrase sounded a lot sexier in Italian (might have been Dino, possibly Mukuro). "I don't want it to be anyone else but you."

Gokudera's eyes rolled right to the back of his skull and he flops in a fainted heap at Tsuna's feet.

It took a few weeks before Gokudera stopped having an auto-faint reaction at the word "deflowering", and another week before they finally got down to business and celebrated, just the way Tsuna wanted to.


End file.
